According to The Department of Energy (DOE), the United States has 4,000 GW of offshore wind energy potential, with the strongest winds located off the North Eastern Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). There are currently no operational offshore wind farms in the country, but the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has identified 18 states which are involved in early stage offshore wind projects. High profile offshore projects like Cape Wind have faced stiff opposition over the last decade and the first project to begin construction, Block Island, has only recently done so.
Utilities and regulators have raised concerns about electricity prices and difficulties in securing financing for these projects. Public opposition has voiced concerns about scenic and environmental impacts, as well as shared ocean use for fisheries and recreation. The resulting legal battles have injected a large amount of uncertainty into the industry’s future and highlighted what some see as shortcomings in state policy addressing offshore wind.
A recent report co-authored by Navigant Consulting and the Clean Energy Group concludes that “current offshore wind policy isn’t working.” The report recommends that states should coordinate policies to streamline regulatory, financing, procurement, and permitting in order to increase market access for offshore wind projects, sharing costs and benefits regionally. The authors suggest that by doing so, they could lower project costs and risk while increasing regional energy reliability, diversity, and help with meeting federal environmental regulations.
Offshore wind should show higher capacity factors than those for in-land wind applications, which hover at an average of ~0.25. Hence, they should produce more energy for the same installed… Read more »
The report referred to has several angles that it is arguing. One, that America will lose out to Europe if we don’t get moving, I believe is somewhat misplaced. In… Read more »
Government can and should take steps to make permitting an off shore wind farm a straightforward process. However, rather than subsidizing a particular clean solution, it would be better to… Read more »
Brandon says “Providing incentives for innovation is important rather that providing subsidies to existing concepts.” That’s quite right. As Prof. Perez-Blanco points out, there are multiple factors that make offshore… Read more »
Lewis: Solar panel prices have dropped 99%, from $76/watt in 1976 to $0.74/watt in 2013. Chinese dumping is not the main reason for this trend and, as you point out,… Read more »
There is one very straight forward reason to support offshore wind with some kind of additional government action – this is a new industry and in spite of previous governmental… Read more »
While the potential for offshore wind is great, so is the cost and this has proven to be the biggest deterrent. I believe that if the cost of offshore wind… Read more »
The antiquated inefficient bird-killing three-bladed wind turbine design should be replaced by at least these two designs which offer far greater efficiency and don’t kill birds. My “Gallery of Clean Energy Inventions”… Read more »
Perhaps, in the longer term, offshore wind power might play a different role than generating electricity. This energy source might be used to convert the carbon dioxide in the upper… Read more »